


I Keep You With Me (The Life After Death Remix)

by dancesontrains



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, Gen, M/M, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2016-08-20
Packaged: 2018-07-28 17:06:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7649299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dancesontrains/pseuds/dancesontrains
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry goes to tell Nora about his new love. Nora listens from the afterlife.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Keep You With Me (The Life After Death Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Moriavis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moriavis/gifts).
  * Inspired by [I Keep You With Me](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6784387) by [Moriavis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moriavis/pseuds/Moriavis). 



There were televisions in the afterlife. 

Unlike the ones on Earth, these were connected (by ethereal means) to peek into the day-to-day happenings of those that still lived - their fears, their loves, their boredoms. While the folk using these televisions could hone in on anyone; they usually chose to look at the ones they had loved, or hated, when alive. 

Loved and hated in the past tense. Being dead was a very strange thing. 

Nora Allen, who was killed by a knife through her chest, was in the section of the afterlife where souls go to recover from trauma - a rehab of sorts. Souls stayed there for as long as it took, then they moved on elsewhere. 

She'd only recently become well enough to receive her own television - a wide black plasma affair that looked strange in her otherwise sparsely furnished room. She reached to turn her machine on, deciding to tune in on Barry, and settled on her comfortable bed. 

Nora still had a lot of affection for him, just in a much gentler way to how she had when alive. She had also been very moved by how much he clearly still loved her. 

Barry was currently placing some sunflowers next to her dead body's gravestone. "Happy Mother's Day. I'm sorry I haven't been here," he said, gently touching the engraved letters of her name. 

He sat down next to her headstone, stretched out his legs on the grass and looked around the cemetery as if he was unfamiliar with it. 

"Mom, you know I'm the Flash, right? A superhero, just like out of a comic book. Remember when you scolded me for trying to read them on Wednesdays instead of doing my homework first?" Barry smiled nostalgically.

"Anyway. Particle accelerator, nine months in a coma, and it was all ...designed by Harrison Wells. No, Eobard Thawne. The man who killed you. But you probably know all this already." Barry's expression had become more maudlin. 

Nora did. Very well. 

Barry plucked a piece of grass and rolled it between his fingers, staring at it. He paused for a moment before he started to tell her about a new member of his family - Joe's son Wally. 

"I think he thinks I hate him, but it's only really because he doesn't know who I am."

Nora watched him talk, feeling that old fondness in her 'heart', and waiting for Barry to get to what he really wanted to speak about. 

Barry soon threw the blade of grass aside and plucked another. 

"And then there's Len, too." Barry ran a hand through his hair. "I keep thinking - what would you say if you were here? I'd like to think you'd just give me a hug and tell me to love him for as long as I can, and that's the important part, I guess."

Wait, wait. Barry was in love with _who_ now? 

"The difficult one. He's Captain Cold, you know?"

Oh _no_. 

"He stole things and murdered a lot of people."

Nora has met some of the people that Leonard Snart- she refused to dignify him with a cartoonish name like 'Captain Cold' - had killed. Thomas, who had been a museum security guard. Marcus, the thief, who'd been shot over a quarrel. "I would renounce my ways and all that, but it's a bit late now isn't it?" he had said to her, with regret in his eyes. 

But then, she'd also met one of the people _Barry_ had killed. Eddie Slick, who could turn his body into sand. He had lived in a different dimension, but died here, so he was sent to this afterlife. That had been an intensely awkward conversation.

She forcibly brought her attention back to what Barry was saying.

"On the other hand, he's traveling through time _right now_ , saving the future. With Mick - Heat Wave - you might have heard of him too."  
Barry and his ..."friend" led very strange lives. 

"I'm not fooling myself anymore. I love him. I haven't even thought about Iris like that in a couple of months, and - I don't know. I loved her for so long, and I guess I just didn't realize I'd changed." Barry cleared his throat and patted the grass. "Anyway, I wanted to tell you first. Kind of an apology for not visiting. You'd tell me to be brave, so…when Len comes back, I'll tell him how I really feel. And we'll go from there. Wish me luck." Tears were forming in his eyes. 

Nora would have told Barry to be brave, yes. But about this? She wasn't so sure. 

"I know it's stupid, but I could really use a hug right now."

Nora reached up her hand to the screen, feeling every inch of the distance between them. She wished that she could have still offered him a hug. 

"Love you, Mom."

After one last touch to the headstone, Barry clambered up onto his feet, dusting down his pants with the palms of his hands while he attempted to blink away the tears in his eyes, then giving up and wiping his face with a hand. He slowly walked up the path through the gravestones. Nora saw him take out his phone and try to ring someone, before glancing down at the screen with a sad expression. 

Nora watched Barry speed away from the cemetery, then changed the "channel" to see what Leonard was up to. He was on a time-travelling ship with his friend Mick and several other people, like Barry had said. They were, at the point of time the television had decided to focus on, dressing up as cowboys. Or in some cases attempting to. 

Nora switched the television off. It was time to think, and think hard. 

There was nothing she could do to stop the relationship from here - assuming she wanted to - and she knew, better than anyone, that Barry Allen was _stubborn_. 

Leonard was a thief; Barry was a vigilante. Nora wondered what had initially brought them together - they were on opposite ends of law and order. How would their inevitable clash of morals work out? How had it worked out so far? 

Barry had said he was in love. That meant it was a serious thing; he had also said that he loved Iris until recently, and Nora had wondered if Barry and Iris would eventually get together. However, that was clearly not to be.

In love. With Leonard Snart. And about to tell him so as soon as he was able to. 

Nora sighed resignedly. There were some errands she had to run before group therapy later, but Barry had thrown her a curveball. 

She cursed her own lack of involvement in his life - maybe there was something she could have done to stop this? No, that seemed unlikely. But what could she do? How could she react?

Nora paused her restless thoughts, looking down at her 'hands' twisted together. 

"I don't want my son to be sad," she finally said to herself, feeling the dregs of her old love inside her. 

If Leonard Snart was the man who made him happy, then she would attempt to be satisfied with that. That was all she could do.

She took a deep "breath," and left the room.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Elr for their exceptional beta work.


End file.
